the sponsor of A Temporary Work (Entertainment) visa (subclass 420) in Australia

So you want to become an approved sponsor of artists or performers for 420 Entertainment Visas in Australia. Here it is in a nutshell plus what you will need to provide us.

who can be a sponsor

an Australian organisation that is a business, a body corporate or an unincorporated body; or

Government Agency, that is an Australian State or Federal Agency or a foreign government agency who is operating in Australia; or

an Australian citizen, permanent resident or an eligible New Zealander who is resident in Australia.

A sole trader will not be approved as a 420 entertainment visa sponsor. If there are no other options for you we will likely apply for you as an individual or establish you correctly as a company.

As an Australian organisation, you must be able to show that you have a good business record in Australia and of course you must be operating legally.

documents we need

The documents needed will depend on what type of ‘entity’ you are and how long you have been operating. If only for a short time a few extra things are required. We have successfully applied for sponsorship approval of a company established less than 24 hours before the application was lodged. As you can imagine we assisted the client in putting together the correct and concise material to satisfy the department that it was (to be) a genuine participant in the industry.Financial records are required and there are no hard and fast rules as to how much money is required to be in your bank. What we look for is a genuine intention to or an actual genuine carrying on of business. If a company has been established for quite some time it might be that we will only need to obtain a letter from the company’s accountant to confirm a number of key things. The documents you are required to provide depend on a number of factors. The key is putting across the correct message in the application and supporting submissions. Once an initial discussion has been had, we should be able to pin point exactly what materials you need to provide us. This will probably save you enormous amount of time rather than doing it on your own and trying to obtain every conceivable document. Yes it is possible to apply for sponsorship at about the same time as you apply for the visas. Ideally you will want to avoid this, however we have been successful in applying for both sponsorship approvals and entertainment visas at the same time.

sponsors obligations

These are the obligations that a sponsor has after approval.

cooperate with inspectors and provide records if requested by the Minister for Immigration

keep accurate records

provide records and information to the Minister of Immigration

advise the department of certain key events

not recover from, transfer or charge certain costs to another person

pay costs to locate and remove an unlawful non-citizen (ie you will be required to pay the government’s costs if your artist is deported)

ensure the visa holder participates in the nominated occupation, program or activity

ensure that the accommodation for the visa holder is of a reasonable standard.

If the Sponsor does not meet the obligations, the following actions could be taken by the Department:

you could be barred

all of your existing approvals as a sponsor could be cancelled

you could be invited to enter into an enforceable undertaking

an infringement notice of up to AUD $10200 for a body corporate and AUD $2040 for an individual could be issued or a court penalty order could be issued for up to AUD $51000 (for a company) and AUD $10200 for an individual for each failure.

In addition, sanctions can also be imposed if:

false or misleading information is provided by the sponsor to the department, to us or the Migration Review Tribunal

the sponsor no longer satisfies the criteria for approval as a sponsor or for variation of a term of that approval

the sponsor has been found by a court to have contravened Australian Law

the person you have sponsored breaks a law relating to the licensing, registration or membership needed to work in the position he/she has had the visa granted under.

costs involved

The cost of obtaining sponsorship approval are from $1520.00 (plus any relevant tax) including the government fees to obtain your 3 year approval.